ITS America declare Detroit as success

ITS America

560 ITS America, organisers of the 2014 6456 ITS World Congress in Detroit, has declared the event a great success with more than 9,100 participants, 700 papers and 300 exhibiters plus the most extensive set of demonstrations ever staged. The introduction of Chief Technology Officer sessions was considered a big success attracting almost 800 attendees.

A Youth Connections Showcase exposed more than 1,000 high school and college students to the opportunities in the ITS sector and the focus was thrown on startup companies in a dedicated Entrepreneurial Village.  

Delegates were addressed by US Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, General Motor’s CEO Mary Barra and Ford’s executive chairman Bill Ford. Foxx invited the ITS Industry to work with USDOT to stage a transportation and technology summit and Barra said Cadillac will introduce a V2V equipped model in 2017.

Ford was more thought provoking voicing concerns over ‘Global Gridlock’ saying: “You can’t just keep on sending more vehicles into the urban environment, it isn’t going to work.”

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ITS South Africa

ITSSA survey shows shortfall

6992 ITS South Africa (ITSSA) is calling for an increase in the number and experience of the country’s ITS practitioners following an audit among its members.

While over the last decade South Africa’s ITS market has grown exponentially to an estimated three-year rolling cycle of R12- 15 billion ($1 - $1.3bn), the number of practitioners has remained static.

An earlier survey found only 6.5% of the ITS practitioners were younger than 35 and this latest audit established that 30% have less than 11 years experience - although 80% are involved in ITS strategy, planning and design or traffic management.

Almost 63% are engineers (professional, technologist or technician) and 36.9% have other registration - such as legal or financial professionals. ITSSA concluded that overall there are too few skilled ITS practitioners and the audit emphasises the need to grow both the number and the experience level of the ‘third generation’ of ITS practitioners.

ITS Korea

Korea maps out C-ITS pathway

ITS Korea’s members are entering the predeployment stage of Cooperative ITS development with a number of three-year pilot projects to provide the technical validation and service supplementation of various systems. The US$18m scheme will see 3,000 vehicles fitted with onboard units, with 95 items of roadside equipment installed along 75km (46 miles) of expressway, national highways and urban roads.

By 2020 the Korean government wants the smart infrastructure expanded to 68% of the expressway and a 10% OBU penetration. It expects to make OBUs mandatory in non-commercial vehicles by 2030 (increasing penetration to 70%) with instrumentation along two-thirds of national highways and 17% of urban roads in small and medium-sized cities.

Ertico aims to expedite eCall

374 Ertico ITS Europe is joining forces with standards organisation ETSI and accredited laboratories company Cetecom to stage the third eCall Testfest event in Vigo, Spain, between 27 and 31 October.

At last year’s event more than 30 vendors carried out more than 300 test sessions to check the interoperability of their IVS or PSAP devices. The following month, Ertico is promoting the third conference about the HeERO project which addresses the pan-European in-vehicle eCall emergency call service. The conference will take place in Madrid, Spain on 27 November. There are now 15 countries participating in the HeERO project and the day after the conference delegates have the opportunity to attend a live eCall demonstrations at the Dirección General de Tráfico, Madrid.

ITS United Kingdom

Dedicated sessions at ITS UK

288 ITS UK’s Smart Environment Interest Group is to hold a seminar entitled A Smarter Way to Lower Emissions at the Traffic Scotland Control Centre, Edinburgh, on 21 October. The Seminar will discuss current progress in decarbonising the UK transport fleet and recent successes in managing traffic-related emissions. Topics will include street level monitoring, a feasibility study for a Newcastle Gateshead low emission zone, air quality modelling tools, future cities and what a low emission strategy for Scotland could look like. A few days later, on 30 October, ITS UK’s Enforcement Group will hold its Annual Conference in the London Transport Museum.